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Luis Almeida
Alberto Luis Santos da Almeida or more commonly known as Luis Almeida, is the true identity of the hero "Zero Hour". Unlike most modern heroes who openly display their true identities behind the mask, Almeida is more cautious and traditional, as a result of a dark event in his childhood that spurred his becoming a hero and the awakening of his Quirk; Invisible Gate. While raising himself from the favellas of Brazil to graduate and become a psychologist, Almeida adopted his Zero Hour personality, using his powerful quirk to attempt to clear the slums and eventually cities of drugs and corruption. When he stepped into the adult world, Almeida passed off an a Quirkless individual in the day, invoking the scorn of a bustling superhero society, while he continued his crusade against villainy behind his mask. Appearance Luis is a tall and athletically built young man, with very distinct Latin American features. His skin is dark and full of uneven tones, having grown up in poverty and not practicing skincare routines. He has inquisitive, brown eyes which are sharp and angled, and a wild mane of untamed, jet black hair. Despite the leaps and bounds he has made to claw his way out of the favellas, Luis refuses to groom himself neatly, preferring to let judgements be passed on his work ethic and skill instead of his appearances. To hide his well toned figure, Luis dresses up very conservatively, almost like a hippie. His clothing is loose and poorly fitted, while he walks with a hunch. Despite these attempts to lay low, Luis is still visibly good looking, with sharp and defined features, including a well sculpted jaw. As Zero Hour, Luis has a triple layered mask covering his identity—the first being surgical bandages, the second being a balaclava and the third being an infamous Guy Fawkes mask made out of fabric. He wears a Kevlar bulletproof vest and dons a tight, black body suit for maximum efficiency in movement. His boots are strapped tightly to his legs, and padded with jagged aluminium to take chunks of flesh off his opponents. He also wears a makeshift utility belt, with a variety of tools attached—including smoke pellets, a torch, packets of throwable firecrackers and acid pellets. Personality As a normal civilian, Luis portrays himself as a calm individual who prefers to avoid conflict. He's polite to his coworkers and to members of the public, and moderate in his speech and manners. In fact, Luis attempts to stray from using profanities even when he's shocked or deeply angered, maintaining an illusion of innocence and piety. He refuses to gossip, carry tales and engage in conversation that demeans or degrades others and prefers to carry out his own work in silence and solitude. Luis' straightforward and silent nature make him a trusted colleague and friend to his peers, and his virtuous behaviour keep him away from animosity and ill will, together with the fact that Luis is a docile individual who prefers to laugh off his problems instead of worry too much about them, a true stoic. While he can't be considered to be an extrovert, Luis isn't unapproachable, and is generally very helpful when his services are needed. As a psychologist he tries to be an understanding and open individual, as he genuinely wishes to help criminals by seeing the way they think and rationalise—in order to stop more young people from making the same bad choices. Though he is a good listener, Luis rarely shares information about himself, preferring to remain mysterious—or purposely letting out false information, especially related to himself. It can be observed by those around him that Luis, for all his calmness and virtue, is very much an enigma when it came down to it. He rarely discussed his past and rarely drives to know the backgrounds of others. This is understandable from Luis' perspective, as Zero Hour has made numerous, terrifying enemies among the underworld elite. Luis' violent past also provides additional validation to his fears as he is eternally paranoid that his hero identity will be compromised, traumatised by the Orphanage incident and the numerous acts of violence he has seen his fellow heroes face; especially the fate of the Secondsmen, who were all brutally murdered after their identities were publicised. Luis is exceptionally religious, having being brought up by missionaries in Rio de Janeiro, the heart of deeply Catholic Brazil. Aside from his normal sense of piety and devotion, Luis believes that his war on crime is a religious crusade, to rid the world of the evil seeds that Satan has planted in mankind. This deep faith of his acts as an anchor that keeps him firmly planted in the turbulent, brutal world of vigilante justice—against frightening elements that most of the 'supervillain' obsessed heroes tend to neglect. Despite the numerous defeats and scars that litter his body, Luis perseveres with his double life, pushing forward in the hope that someday, no matter how improbable, his war will be won—and that tiny chance for success is what drives him through the murder, sadness and stench of blood every night. As Zero Hour, Luis is a hardened and veteran hero who has seen the dark side of life and all its horrors. In more sophisticated parts of the world, crime runs rampant, but it does not shatter one's fundamental humanity as Brazil did. He has stood over the bodies of dozens of friends and comrades, stood over the corpses of children even; and these haunting memories and experiences have made him a brutal enforcer of justice. Unlike most heroes, Zero Hour does not care for accolades or fame, he is blunt and relentless. He engages in many questionable activities as a hero, breaking bones, utilising torture as a weapon and using needless violence to frighten and psychologically crush his opponents into submission. He shatters his enemies bones before mutilating them in horrific ways, or spraying their faces with acid. Zero Hour ensures that his most dangerous foes are ruined financially, physically and in terms of reputation. The kingpins Zero Hour nails are often stripped of their assets and left to rot in prisons harbouring nothing but seething hate for him. Several of Zero Hour's strongest opponents have been left with irreparable bodily damage to their bones, notably their limbs and backs. He deals with his enemies in such a way they can no longer rise against him, or the people. Zero Hour's moral compass is severely skewed and in disrepair as his fellow heroes have noted. His terrible past has turned him into a bitter, suspicious and deeply hurt individual who is very eager to savagely beat villains until they cling to inches of their life. Despite Luis Almeida fighting eternally for the hope of victory, Zero Hour knows that victory will never come, continuing the fight only because justice has to be dealt onto those who pursue evil. It is this tragedy that further contributes to the broken hero's rage, as despite all his power and ability, he is unable to force fate to change—making him a frustrated and torn figure. He refuses to believe that kindness can reform a hardened crook, turning to violence to break them instead. And most do not doubt the efficiency of Zero Hour's work—his enemies mostly never rise from their defeats, but the only line he will not cross is murder, which he committed unintentionally as a child when activating his Quirk. The civilian populace of Brazil regard him with great love but mind numbing fear, as Zero Hour's tactics are as swift as they are brutal. The general view on Zero Hour is that his existence is a divine counter-reaction to years of injustice, cruelty and rivers of bloodshed in Brazil. While countries like America and Japan basked in the sunny nature of their heroes, Brazil's villains had been swift and violent, murdering heroes in ways foreign media could only report, but never show. Zero Hour's personality greatly divides the hero populace. His violent and heartless methods have seen many heroes disavow him, but criminals quake in fear at the mention of his name. Heroes are enraged with the apathy and brazenness of Zero Hours methods, the willingness he displays to stoop to such inhumane levels and clean the streets while dispensing notorious vigilante justice. However in a hero society of fame and accolades, many heroes do acknowledge that a brutal enforcer such as him are very necessary to do the dirty, terrible work that most commercialised heroes fear to tread. Zero Hour personally puts on an abrasive and blunt front, making it very difficult for most heroes to work beside him. He is impatient while masked and quite often rude and crass, a clear contrast to Luis Almeida's gentle, understanding demeanour. Zero Hour regards most of his peers as fools, seeking to get away from them and carry his duties out alone. More than his apparent distaste for most heroes, Zero Hour is eternally in crippling fear that heroes he associates with will be regarded as his friends by his enemies, making them targets for revenge attacks. As a result, he maintains his irritated exterior, hoping to keep a distance between himself and others...for their own wellbeing. Abilities Most of the world's greatest heroes had received formal education in esteemed hero academies and thus, had an incredible move-set to prove. Luis was never trained in a hero academy, instead going through a normal route of education for a typical professional job, not a hero course. The abilities that Luis garnered were earned on the streets, as the fruits of a sixteen year career fighting crime since the delicate age of ten. A quick learner, Luis has compiled extensive martial arts knowledge with dogged practice to master his quirk to wage a relentless war on criminals. Relying on fear and brute force to overwhelm his enemies and the fact that nobody on the planet knows of his Quirk's technicalities, Luis as Zero Hour is a force of nature that few enemies are capable of dealing with, ranked 40th on the hero billboards during his time with the Secondmen, as a teenager. Intelligence As noted by many, Luis is a spectacularly intelligent individual—despite the fact that he has never revealed his intelligence quotient, or openly taken an aptitude test. He relies greatly on his intellect to compensate for the volatile nature of his Quirk, preferring to stay one step ahead rather than rely on his Quirk for an unfavourable battle. Luis has a very broad functioning range of intellectual capabilities that are developed mainly in terms of memory and adaptability, and have helped him accrue vital skills that aid him in his line of work. Linguistic Capabilities: Luis grew up in Brazil, and as such is extremely fluent in Portuguese, his mother tongue. As a result of his upbringing by the missionaries for the good part of seven years, he is also very fluent with the English language—perhaps even more than his native Brazillian Portuguese, as he relied on it extensively when he moved to Sao Paolo. As part of a prestigious schooling academy, Luis quickly demonstrated his nous in the linguistic field, as he picked up French and Japanese throughout his five year term as part of the additional language course, being able to converse with fluid ease in these two languages towards the end of his stay in Brazil. In his early twenties, Luis picked up Hindi, German and Mandarin as well, quickly gaining intermediate degrees of skill in all three. Deductive Capabilities: Very often, Luis is forced to work with numerous variables without much tying them together. Such is the line of work that deals with deviant behaviour in mankind. Luis has both experience and logical prowess, that can help him pull clues together at a moment's notice. He is as persistent as a bloodhound, piecing together even the smallest pieces of a disjointed picture to come to an accurate conclusion. Luis is able to use his calm to pierce the thickest shadowed webs, penetrating through layers of detail that most fail to see at first glance. Working hand in hand with investigators, Luis has cracked many gruesome cases with minimal detail afforded to him. He can also deduce the next courses of action by relying on his preexisting knowledge of the patterns of certain groups of criminals, relying on his psychological know how to accurately interpret and deduce behaviour patterns and reasons. Vast Psychological Knowledge: As a forensic psychologist, Luis is very knowledgable when it comes to the inner workings of the human mind. Despite his youth, Luis' public persona is rapidly being regarded as one of the rising stars among psychologists, in an area where telekinetic quirks generally shine. Breaking free of this monopoly is due in part to the affinity he has for this field of study. Dealing with so many criminals for therapy and treatment has also given Luis valuable insight as to how every type of criminal thinks, acts or behaves. As he deals with criminals both as a secret hero and in his open job, it can be argued that few people in the world know criminals as intimately as Luis does. Luis' knowledge of psychology has also made him proficient at gauging body language and facial reactions. He is perceptive and observant to the changes that individuals express and seek to hide, and he more often than not can make accurate conclusions from the information presented to him. Martial Arts Knowledge Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: Luis has practiced Jiu Jitsu since he was 4 years old, learning from an old man in his favella. As a lanky child with long limbs, this style of combat suited him best, as it allowed him to overpower any enemy regardless of body mass or size, while inflicting minimal actual harm. Luis has practiced this fighting style consistently for over 20 years, and is devastatingly adept at it. He has a flawless ground game, able to consistently dominate opponents in grappling matches almost every time, regardless of his enemies' strength. Luis is skilled at all forms of submissions, body locks and limb locks, able to cut off blood flow to key regions of his opponents bodies by using his hands and his legs. In addition, his quick and nimble nature allow him to transition between numerous complex manoeuvres at a whim, confounding enemies and always switching his stances so that he remains ahead at all times. Luis is understandably very able when it comes to turning his enemies momentum against them, as he can easily overturn punches, kicks and obviously grapples with minimal effort. Muay Thai: Muay Thai is a brutal martial art that symbolises the raw terror of the absolute basics. Luis avidly learned this martial art during his time in the United States, coached by a former world champion in his New York City gym. Luis' speed and dexterity served him well as Muay Thai helped further condition his body, specifically his core muscles. Luis' roundhouse kick encapsulates the raw and fearsome power of this Thai fighting style, functioning more like a battering ram than a baseball bat. Before utilising his grappling prowess via BJJ, Luis usually seeks to shatter his opponent's guard by bashing a driven roundhouse into their arms or ribs, or completely offsetting their balance with a drive to the knees or ankles. His technique is so flawless that he has broken bones by landing his kicks on the first go, polished to perfection thanks to hours of his free time dedicated to honing it. His Muay Thai training also led to Luis polishing up his boxing skills, and as every Muay Thai fighter is, he is very well grounded in boxing. Luis does not emulate the western boxer's passion for swift combinations and dancing jabs: he uses his fists to create quick openings in his enemies guards, so that he can finish them with a well timed roundhouse, or teep to the groin. Luis also uses his elbows and knees with brutal frequency, pummelling his enemies when they're pinned by his grapples or clinches, targeting the groin and face areas for maximum damage. Though he picked up the basics from his stay in New York, Luis has honed his Muay Thai through almost seven years of self practice, and a strict conditioning regimen. Krav Maga: Perhaps the simplest, yet most deadly weapon in his arsenal is Krav Maga, the Israeli martial art employed by many special forces in the world. As there is a centre close to his workplace in Romania, Luis openly has been attending these classes from the age of 23. Unlike the other martial arts classes where he has left the academies to practice by himself, he sticks with Krav Maga for it is the most complete, and it sharpens his other martial arts considerably due to its jack of all trades nature. Krav Maga forms the basis of Luis' disarming tactics, for situations where his quirk is too volatile to be used. In such shock situations, Luis can easily detach firearms, blades and blunt weapons from enemies, by manipulating joints and pressure points. His Krav Maga training has also given him the anatomical knowledge of the numerous weak spots in the human body, which he can exploit with his other martial arts. Focusing on fighting dirty, Luis is comfortable with playing viciously, striking low blows without remorse or compassion. He has also learned to use various weapons from his instructors, which work well with his solidification quirk. By solidifying the air into objects, Luis can create invisible melee objects to duel his enemies, as long as his concentration is undisturbed. Quirk Luis' Quirk is a particularly useful one called Invisible Gate. Invisible Gate allows Luis to solidify any form of substance around him (liquid and gas), to form a sturdy structure which is defensively astute. Invisible Gate's strength at manageable forms is directly proportional to the concentration and determination of the user, as Luis' solidification is otherwise fleeting in time. Luis is able to easily craft substances out of the air to help him fight, such as staffs, batons and such; these feats require little concentration, and can still be maintained in terms of form during a fight. These materials are as strong as conventional weapons, and are used to break bones and end fights quickly in tandem with his martial arts. Though supplementary in nature, Invisible Gate's best uses are as a defensive mechanism. It takes concentration to maintain this Quirk, but it just takes a mild thought to activate it. When activated it materialises instantly, and is therefore very useful against Quirks that fire projectiles or are used by criminals at a distance, to harm their enemies from a safe range. The power of the Invisible Gate is such that it can withstand most Quirks and most conventional weaponry with ease, protecting the user in all scenarios. Luis is able to create and maintain walls of air that barricade him from an enemy's assaults, to match their power with a mighty defence. Invisible Gate also allows its user to cover themselves up in an orb of protective air to defend from multi directional attacks, as long as their concentration is uninterrupted—and also contingent on the thickness of the air solidified. Luis can also use these abilities in the water, though he mainly uses the Quirk to solidify water under his feet to run on it uninterrupted. In his native Brazil, Luis managed to blind a mobster who had seen his face, solidifying his spittle as he spat it, scarring the cornea of the man. The same principles can also be applied to allow Luis to "walk" on air. He can solidify the air beneath his feet to run in thin air, and to outmanoeuvre his opponents. Fundamentally, Luis' range with Invisible Gate is roughly a twelve foot radius all around him, whereupon he can solidify objects freely. By solidifying the air generated by moving his limbs, Luis can also create additional, invisible appendages to overpower enemies and hit their blind spots. The ability to solidify matter in a twelve foot radius also allow him to solidify enough air to immobilise or pin down opponents who get too close. Invisible Gate can also be used to suddenly create undetectable walls in front of an enemy who is approaching at top speed, shattering bone and ending fights quickly. Invisible Gate however is not without weakness. It is at its core, a very volatile and dangerous Quirk that is literally uncontrollable if used beyond the twelve foot radius. At its base forms under twelve feet, the Quirk is not dangerous to the user's heart, which pumps normally, ignoring environmental factors. Beyond that however, significantly strains the heart, causing it to pump erratically, exponentially increasing the risk of cardiac arrest with each quarter of a foot the technique is extended. The quirk also begins to lose its stability and will be beyond the user's control if optimum range is exceeded. It begins to solidify wildly in terms of height before fluctuating in terms of width. This can cause massive damage and kill innocent bystanders with ease, as well as physically harming the user, or killing the user due to accidental solidification. An example of loss of control being during the activation of his Quirk, where he solidified too much air beyond his limit and brought the entire orphanage down on himself and his attackers. As the Quirk is also heavily reliant on concentration for effectiveness, a loss of concentration could be catastrophic and even fatal. Luis has sought to minimise this innate weakness by honing his concentration over the years, but the risk still exists—and can be violently exploited. Despite its massive strength against Quirks, elements and projectiles; there exists one Quirk type that can shatter the defensive power of Invisible Gate: Quirks that magnify brute force attacks. Special Moves Air Kukri: A trademark blade of the legendary Nepali Gurkhas, the Kukri is a wonderful weapon with a unique design that is capable of mesmerising an enemy when wielded by a master. Among shorter bladed weapons, this is Luis' go to weapon of choice which he is accustomed to for intense close quarters involvements. Luis tends to manifest the Air Kukri when chaining his combination attacks, as a finishing move of sorts: where he targets his enemies' quadriceps and hamstrings muscles to effectively neutralise their movements from the waist down. As this is the easiest offensive weapon he can materialise using the air, Luis also frequently uses the Double Air Kukri variant of this move, quickly slashing at enemies who may possess a physical advantage over him; proving to be an effective but subtle power up. Air Staff: Luis is not well versed with staff combat, but he is still capable of finding uses for a four to five foot long staff, usually to smack a weapon from an opponent at a safe distance, or to extend the range of his reach with a dirty attack—powering through his opponent's guard with a strong smack which is further compounded by the enemy's inability to accurately gauge the distance of his weapon. He also uses the edges of the staff to vault himself over obstacles, or to drive into an enemy's abdomen and cause them debilitating pain. Airborne Impact: After launching himself into the air for a leaping roundhouse kick, Luis solidifies the air around his shin to form an extra layer of 'padding' which is actually exceptionally hard—and heavy. This tough solidified layer of air magnifies the pain inflicted by the kick, causing incredible damage; especially when the kick lands around the neck or liver. Airborne Impact's effectiveness depends on the user's technique however—a misstep can cause severe damage to Luis' own leg. Golgotha Hill: When an enemy is immobilised temporarily and has to therefore be restrained permanently without too much regard for injury, Golgotha Hill is Luis' go to ability. A grounded enemy can be rendered useless instantly when Luis solidifies a huge chunk of air on top of them—a technique that has to be modulated and used with caution depending on the base physical power of the victim. Golgotha Hill is also effective in smaller variants, as it can be used to crush the bones of arms and legs. This move is however, a very temporary one. It's function is to smash the opponent into submission or to limit their range of movement to open up new loopholes and weaknesses for Luis to exploit. Jericho Version I: Every knight needs a solid shield and that is what exactly Jericho is to Zero Hour. The Jericho is a wall of solid air designed to defend Luis from frontal attacks. Depending on size, strength and concentration required, Jericho comes in three main variants. Version I is named as such because it was the first variant Luis coined—and the most simple. It is circular in shape and around 2.5 feet in circumference. Version I is useful in brawls and smaller bladed weapons or Quirks, capable of tanking most of these directly. This is usually due to the fact that it is meant to tackle quick attacks, not concentrated and powerful blows. Version I can therefore be used in conjunction with the Air Kukri or Air Staff to bash an opponent in between quick slashes, or ram into an enemy behind the (relative) security of the shield. Jericho Version II: While Version I is useful against Quirk users with speed linked Quirks, it is near useless against strength enhancing Quirks or particularly able bodied combatants. Version II was therefore developed by Luis to even up the odds against the purer brawlers, who are built with endurance and strength at the relative cost of speed. Jericho Version II is a square shield which is 4.5 feet high and 2.5 feet wide. It is rather heavy and cumbersome, and requires a slightly longer charge time compared to Version I, together with a more intense focus to maintain. Version II can hold its own against direct blunt force attacks and stronger projectile weapons, or even Quirks which can emulate materials such as solid steel. It encompasses Luis if he gets into a crouch, allowing him to press forward and negate certain power loaded attacks. Version II is most useful against elemental Quirks, as it can easily tank most of these attacks. Breaking Version II with a single direct attack would only be possible from a focused attack, or a Quirk of immense power. Jericho Ultra: Jericho Ultra, or Jericho Version III is possibly the strongest defensive manifestation of Luis' Quirk. While his Quirk is limited by his own concentration and (though rarely) the immense power of his opponent's Quirk, Luis furiously sought to neutralise that glaring weakness as much as possible, in order to stand a chance against the potential threat of villains with such terrifying abilities. Jericho Version II had proven to be extremely reliable but had been broken several times in the past, also notably broken through twice by a single attack. The only solution was to create another defensive manoeuvre that could take on the strongest types of attacks, or at least neutralise them to a degree that allows him to survive. Jericho Ultra proved to be just that, despite being exceptionally difficult to conjure and required almost all of the user's attention to keep up. It is in the shape of a dome that covers Luis from all angles and is a nigh impenetrable defence provided the user can resist the massive strain it imposes without moving a single muscle. Jericho Ultra's most impressive feat to date was resisting Metal Monger's strongest attack: the fifty foot long God Needle—an attack feared for its massive destructive ability. Jericho Ultra has also saved Luis from an entire skyscraper being toppled on him, numerous gigantification and amplification Quirks and plasma based wide scale Quirks. Jericho Ultra is the only Quirk related ability in Luis' arsenal which may truly be able to stand alongside the most terrifying, powerful Quirks on the planet, but it is one that is limited by the human body—as its effectiveness is directly related to Luis' own mindset and physical ability. In that sense, the true potential of Jericho Ultra may never be known. Stats History The Day and Night Luis grew up in the infamous slums of Brazil, orphaned by mysterious circumstances that he was never told about. Having never known whether his family were alive or dead, or why he ended up in the squalor he did, Luis shared his woes with the majestic statue of Christ the Redeemer which towered over the beautiful Brazilian landscape, praying every night out of gratitude for the little things he had, which meant the world to him. His piety was inspired by the fact that he was raised in a Christian orphanage set up by missionaries who had settled in the poverty ridden slums. The superhuman society's resurgence over the centuries had done little to fix mankind's barest problems. This realisation was blunt enough to hit even the young Luis, who watched as his friends developed marvellous quirks, but were subjected to the same struggles day in and day out. Gang wars were common, as quirks blazed loudly through the humid Brazilian nights, as superhuman criminals did battle for the territories they'd use to hide their illegitimate assets. The orphanage kept Luis and his friends safe from the horrors of the night, as in the dawn all the children would see were white, blood stained sheets covering the bodies of the losing factions of the turf wars. When he was seven, Luis' yet to be activated Quirk would finally reveal itself—as the horrors of the night made their way to the day. When the missionaries refused to allow one of the numerous gangs to use the orphanage as a drug cache. When Luis' innocence would forever be shattered, and when he realised that his daily prayers alone were not sufficient for deliverance. Enraged by the missionaries' refusal to heed their requests, the cartel leader stepped forward. His quirk was a creation quirk, Luis would remember it for the rest of his life. His fingers manifested into blades as the gangster drove it into the skull of the closest missionary. The old man's brains and flesh splattered onto the children, Luis included, as his seizing body writhed on the ground, muscles spawning. In Brazil's underground, the people had to learn to never say no. Young Luis could see what these people were doing, as the other men turned their Quirks on the missionaries, violent superhuman powers used to kill people who had devoted their lives to peace. The children huddled and screamed, backing away; but the cartel would not be satisfied by just killing adults. Dead children would be the perfect highlight to make the entire Favella and the other gangs, fear them completely. As all the door were locked, the further slaughter began, as young blood was spilt by godless criminals until only one was left. The hulking leader of the Cartel stepped forward, his first target was Luis, and as those blood stained knife-fingers of his streaked overhead to finish the terrified, weeping youngster off. But then a magnificent sound erupted into existence, as the knives slammed against an invisible wall, inches from Luis' face, shattering the weapons as the cartel leader and his six or so goons looked on in shock. But Luis knew what it was, he felt the power and rage and fear flowing through his veins. It was his Quirk. He willed it again, as he felt something invisible form around him, uncontrollably. Immediately the entire ceiling blasted open, as huge chunks of rock burst down with a terrifying roar, as the gangsters were pinned by the huge rubble, and Luis cowered downwards, screaming. In a minute, there was complete silence, as Luis lay in an invisible dome of his own making, whimpering and shivering as nothing but the clear blue sky lay above him. He willed his protective dome away, as the remaining rubble blasted outwards, leaving him the sole survivor of the orphanage attack. The activation of his Quirk left him unable to stand, as he would learn that he had solidified a limited portion of the air around him, which had led to the unsurprising crumbling of the orphanage. As he was led away from the brutal carnage by emergency aid services shivering and traumatised, the familiar sight of the statue of Christ greeted him, arms outstretched beyond him. For once, Luis reached out towards it, a different prayer on his lips. He prayed at that moment, that this strength granted to him by the Lord would be put to defend those who could not defend themselves. A Hero Rises After the Orphanage attack, Luis was relocated to a new home for children and the homeless in the less habit end portion of the slums. However the awakening of his Quirk and the Orphanage slaughter had left him traumatised and paranoid. He began to hate the organised crime syndicates in the slums with a fiery passion, and began to aspire to clear out the criminals around him. Along the way Luis began to learn Jiu Jitsu from an old vagabond in his shelter, showing a natural talent for it. Luis continued his schooling sessions as well, determined to rise from the hardships of life and reach greener pastures. Along the way, he developed and polished his Quirk in secret, never revealing it to anybody. At the age of ten, Luis foiled a robbery under the protection of a balaclava, utilising his Quirk to break the knees of six robbers who had targeted a tourist in the slums in the dead of night. This deed led to him realising an avenue where he could serve justice, while also relying on the power of his Quirk. From then on, he would christen himself "Zero Hour", in memory of the moments of anguish that had spurred this unquenchable thirst for justice in his heart. Zero Hour was a small sized masked hero who generally hid in the shadows and relied on guerrilla style fighting to stealthily neutralise his foes. With his identity, habits and Quirk all hidden, the criminals of the Favella did not know what to expect, as Zero Hour viciously shut down every pick pocketing ring in the slums in a year. While his activities were starting to attract attention in more powerful areas, Luis was not immature enough to realise that he lacked the skill and might to challenge the true criminals—murders, racketeers and rapists. So he remained cautious. As he grew into a teenager, Luis began to set his future up in the academic sense, while finally moving onto bigger prey. Zero Hour's skill in Jiu Jitsu coupled with the Quirk Invisible Gate, allowed him to thrash gangbangers and aid the beleaguered police force in a slum that had seen its heroes brutally murdered in the infamous Weeping Redeemer incident. Zero Hour became a faceless symbol of hope for the oppressed people, as criminals began to cower again, faced with an unknown adversary who seemed to have no form. Luis' punishments were cruel to be put bluntly. Thieves had crushed hands, murderers had squashed arms and legs, gangsters had their knees bent backwards, rapists had their tools shattered by the power of solidified air. The police had nothing more than clean up to deal with. The punishments were gruesome, but most of all...the hope Zero Hour instilled in the people inspired them to fight back, as Quirk users began to rally against the evil forces that had suppressed them. By the time Luis left the slums after earning his education in Sao Paolo, more vigilantes had risen up, hand in hand with the police to tackle crime. Zero Hour's exploits in the slums had spread throughout Brazil, and he began to be known as the Angel of the Favella. In Sao Paolo while receiving his secondary education, his exploits as Zero Hour earned him recognition from the famous Sao Paolo based vigilante group, the Secondmen. Luis worked with the Secondmen for a good three years, until the members decided to come public with their identities and to shake off their dark image and gain public trust. The most famous incident the Secondmen were involved in was the singlehanded destruction of the Blanco cartel, which Luis played a starring role in. Luis refused to give up his identity, even to the Secondmen: reasoning that they had fought powerful and dangerous people, and it was too dangerous to give up their identities. The Secondmen were confident in their power and legend, and gave up their identities anyway. Zero Hour left them to work alone again. Three months later all seven of the remaining Secondmen were found dead, hung upside down from skyscrapers in Luis' native Rio de Janeiro. Their eyeballs, tongues and ears had been cut off, and their genitalia had been shoved into their oral cavities. Their families had all been found dead in the Rio bay, chopped to pieces. The shocking murders had been carried out by a super powered cartel the Secondmen had ruined; more specifically the villain Falling Veil. The horrific scenes further terrified Luis, empowering his decision to forever stay anonymous as a hero. Avenger After the murder of the Secondsmen, Luis decided to hunt down Falling Veil doggedly in an attempt to bring the mass murdering villain to justice while avenging his former teammates and friends. He viciously attacked the gangs and syndicates operating under Falling Veil's protection in an infamous event known as the Sao Paolo Parade, where Zero Hour public ally humiliated every one of Falling Veils lieutenants, by hunting them down, brutally beating them until their arms and legs due to the force of his attacks, and hanging them naked under the Sao Paolo night sky the same way his friends had been murdered. Leaving them barely alive and easily available for capture by police forces and the heroes that worked with them, Zero Hour's now increasingly violent methods drove a wedge between the main populace and the once christened Angel of the Favellas. Several heroes began to call for Zero Hour's benevolent status to be revised, labelling him a psychopathic villain. Despite polarising opinions, Zero Hour had the backing of the police force and a large number of the civilian populace, who had suffered under Falling Veil for too long, and had been all deeply traumatised by the outlandishly brutal murders of the much beloved Secondsmen. Unfazed by the increasing number of heroes who began to call for his removal, Zero Hour continued his one man reign of terror, hell bent on drawing out Falling Veil and bringing him to justice. In the day, Luis made his plans and worked his way through jobs. In the night, Luis consumed various supplements and steroids, as he obsessively worked long hours without much sleep, hellbent on his mission. He was eventually successful, as Falling Veil responded to his incessant needling. Falling Veil and Zero Hour engaged in a massive suburban battle seven months after the Secondsmen Slaughter, in a ferocious battle that tore through the most populated area of Sao Paolo. Falling Veil's projectile mighty quirk fared extremely poorly against Zero Hour's durable Invisible Gate, as Luis pressed the criminal down, beating him to a bloody pulp. In a desperate attempt to survive, Falling Veil began targeting civilians, forcing Zero Hour to concentrate solely on defending the bystanders. The battle raged on and was joined by more heroes, who focused on protecting the civilians while Zero Hour directly engaged with the tiring super villain. In a magnificent battle which demonstrated the masterly usage of two supremely powerful Quirks, Zero Hour was victorious, lashing both limb and Quirk into Falling Veil. The villain was brutalised, as Zero Hour's solidified air shattered his jaw, ending the fight as Falling Veil's identity was finally revealed, his face torn open and not one of his teeth remaining attached. Zero Hour had beaten him half dead, but despite the fact that the heroes tried to use this against him, the civilian populace rejoiced. Considering that Falling Veil had been an adversary powerful enough to kill all the Secondsmen, the feat of a lone hero defeating a noted hero killer was all the more impressive. Luis was finally able to make peace with himself, having felt he had avenged his friends once a life sentence was passed onto the now deformed Falling Veil. A Short Time Pro His epic exploits in Brazil garnered public attention, but up until this point Luis had never been an official hero. He hadn't been ranked as a result and despite the people of his country regarding him as its greatest hero, the other pro heroes regarded Zero Hour as a violent menace who was too unpredictable for comfort. As Zero Hour's prerogative was to seek out justice, he wasn't bothered about how the public viewed him—never taking hero exams as a result. While his deeds had alienated some of the support for him, Zero Hour's masterclass against Falling Veil convinced many fence sitters that he was a powerful ally and worth his salt as a hero. His subsequent clean up operations led to even more goodwill between the citizens of Brazil and Zero Hour, as he continued his trend of going after dangerous criminals that most heroes chose to avoid. This alone made Zero Hour shine brightly among the commercialised heroes that never actually did their job behind the cameras and show lights. Most notably after Falling Veil, Zero Hour hunted down the Mad Monk of Cordoba—a former foreign hero turned villain who ran several sex trafficking rings in the country, defeating and arresting him after procuring evidence for severe charges (but not before bludgeoning him half to death). The keenest eyes on Luis were the eyes of Brazil's dirty, corrupt politicians. All too well, they were aware that the heroes who backed them in their political advertisements were not doing the jobs they signed up for. Criminals who paid the dough, escaped the wrath of justice...and the people could see it. National faith in the hero institution was crumbling and dissatisfaction was growing as people began to associate the heroes weaknesses with improper governance. In a desperate bid to "revamp" their failed hero system, a vast overhaul was carried out, where the government put in a direct request to the Hero Association to revoke the licenses of some heroes, while putting in commendations for other heroes to rise in their place—and hopefully restore the trust of the people. Among these names was Zero Hour. And his nomination was a divisive one, to say the absolute least. While a large number of heroes opposed this for obvious reasons, Zero Hour had the backing of several more influential heroes together with the Brazilian government—leading to the unprecedented act of inducting him as well as 20 other heroes as official Pro Heroes, without the typical need to rise through an education system. Initially ranked 102nd for defeating Falling Veil alone, Luis' stock and rank as a global hero rose even further as he began targeting associates of international crime lords who were operating in Brazil, notably kingpins of the narcotics industry. Luis used this unexpected blessing of recognition to further boost his name among criminals, adding an element of fame to his swiftly vicious tactics. While heroes spread their messages of hope and embodied the best of humanity, Luis mounded his alter ego to serve as a dark reminder of what awaited those who pursued evil. By the end of the very same year, Zero Hour was ranked among the top 50 heroes in the world. As Luis finished the final year of his education in Sao Paolo, he realised that his alter ego was getting more and more offers from other Pro Heroes to work together. Reigniting memories of the Secondmen, Luis was quick to reject these offers—often in the most crass way possible, deliberately attempting to reject the companionship of his fellows. His unapproachable nature and evasion of the citizens he protected went completely against the commercial aspect of being a hero, but ultimately Zero Hour's critics zoomed into the newly christened hero's consistently bloodthirsty methods. Three weeks after cracking the top 50, Zero Hour's staunchest supporters in the Hero industry realised that there was no avoiding it. The man was too close to a villain to maintain his spot as a licensed pro. The next month, Luis' hero persona was no longer on the list: which greatly satisfied him. By this time, Luis had already received his offer to work in the United States of America: as a criminal psychologist in the urban fortress of New York—officially a vigilante. Trivia *Due to a career full of injuries, Luis has developed abnormal growths of bone around his body (osteophytes), due to unintended calcification of torn muscles and such. *Luis is the author's only character in this wiki and the third vigilante story the author has ever attempted.